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Comment history

The state of the contemporary Republican Party vis a vis its progressive, common sense past is best summed up by a letter from President Eisenhower to his brother, Ed, the relevant portion of which is quoted below:

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Unfortunately, they are no longer negligible in number and now control the GOP. The president's remaining description and analysis is 100 percent accurate.

Remindful of the Batman movie wherein thieves and crooks are exploiting an already strangled and corrupt Gotham to jack ever more illicit profits from the system. I mean, how much is enough, Kochies? You're already kazillionaires. Why are you using your resources to destroy both our state and nation? Granted, you're doing a great job of it, but is easily attained power that absolutely addictive?.

Bob Dole, in his time, represented the far right of Republican politics, not the bizarre far right but as far right as one can go without tipping over the edge of nuttiness. The distinction between the extremists who now occupy political office and Senator Dole is that he respected the system and necessity of compromise in the process of governing. He did not put his ideological leanings ahead of his duty to function as a representative of the people of his state and his country.

Well, there seems to be an unwritten rule that you don't throw the ball into the post in one of the "all-star" games, and so defense is the only thing for which he could draw praise. These all-star games should go the way of the NFL all-pro game and disappear. The players should just find a gym and work on their fundamentals the rest of the spring before appearing on campus for the summer practices. Horrible basketball.

Irrespective of the merits or demerits of cutting state spending for higher education, the problem is the costs of cutting state aid are shifted to middle class taxpayers through tuition and fee hikes. The costs are then shifted again to the kids themselves who are burdened with tens of thousands in student loan debt. Instead of buying cars and houses when they graduate, the kids are repaying their college loans, putting a further drag on the economy. The state support for higher education has fallen from over 80 percent of the cost of an education to well below 50 percent of the cost. It's gotta stop.

You hit it Konza. When I think of our current right wing grade school graduate legislators, the scene from Lord of the Rings comes to mind when all the hellish inhabitants of middle earth are about to descend on MinasTirith slobbering, grunting and moaning, threatening to end the rule of mankind. It is bad enough to be governed by ideologues, but stupid ideologues are intolerable.

Senator Schodorf is exactly right. The Republicans in Kansas have historically been a moderately progressive party who were concerned about using the modest resources of our state to promote what counts the most for all of us, a superior education system and policies that promote a strong middle class. Governors Bill Avery, Robert Bennett, Mike Hayden and Bill Graves and our legislative leaders governed from the political center. We were a successful state with very few major budgetary and political conflicts. Since the party's right wing has taken over, Kansas has become Czarist Russia. The legislature has declared a war on the middle class by shifting the tax burden to property tax payers, probably taking away the mortgage deduction, cutting individual per student aid to school districts and cutting aid to the poor and creating a major budget crisis, all for the purpose of achieving the Koch model of governing. What a sorrowful tragedy and horrible thing to do to Kansas. Shame on all of us for allowing it to happen.